Manhattan, New York – As part of the avowed aim of Hon. Shirley A. Botchway, (MP) Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration of Ghana to improve consular services to the Ghanaian Diaspora, The Ghana Mission in New York is partnering with VFS Global to expand biometric capturing process in the United States (US) West Coast, the Midland region and other designated locations in the US.
Until this arrangement, Ghanaians in the US West Coast were flying for 5 hours to New York or Washington D.C. to process their passport applications.
This move commenced on Friday, August 18, 2017 when the Ghana Mission signed a cooperation agreement with VFS Global to start the project. Unveiling the project, Hon. Bernard Quatson, the Consul General of Ghana to New York pointed out that the goal of the Mission is to ensure that the biometric capturing process is accessible in places with high Ghanaian demographics like Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago.
On her part, Ghana’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Martha Pobee said the partnership will allow the Ghana Mission to improve on service delivery while catering to the needs of the growing number of biometric passport applicants in the US.
Mr. Anil Katoch the VFS Global Chief Operating Officer of the Americas said that his firm is an outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions with contracts in over 123 cities worldwide.
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According to Mr. Katoch, the company which has 23,000 office locations, manages visa and passport issuance-related administrative and non-discretionary tasks for its clients. He said apart from ensuring easy access to passport applications, the partnership with the Ghana Mission will create employment to Ghanaians in the Diaspora.
VFS Global (www.vfsglobal.com) is the world’s largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide. The company manages administrative and non-judgmental tasks related to visa, passport, identity management and other citizen services for its client governments enabling them to focus entirely on the critical task of assessment.
Present at the signing ceremony were Mr. Fred Ansong Dwamena, Executive Secretary General of the National Council of Ghanaian Associations (NCOGA); Mr. Abdul Salam, President of Yankassa Association of USA.
Mr. Paul Odei of International Travel Exchange and the representative of the Travel and Tour industry, and Mr. Mohamed Mardah, a representative of the Ghana Chamber of Commerce of US were also present.
Source: The Christian Journal
Oral Ofori is Founder and Publisher at www.TheAfricanDream.net, a digital storyteller and producer, and also an information and research consultant.
